Carnival Of Blog Coverage

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Carnival #7: The World Wide Blog

Much of the mainstream media's coverage of blogs tends to focus on America, but there is so much more to the blogosphere than that, as the coverage of the past couple of weeks indicates. Unfortunately, the news has not always been good.

The story that attracted the most attention was the arrest of Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah. He was nabbed as part of a sit-in. Bloggers are among those pushing for democracy in Europe, and the arrest sparked concern in their the community.

Blogging is just as unwelcome in others pockets of the world, according to a report released by Reporters Without Borders for World Press Freedom Day, which was May 3. VNU Network published a story on the report.

Despite the restrictions on blogs in Asian countries, citizen journalism appears to be increasingly popular there. Citizen journalism also is making strides, albeit slowly, in Europe.

Also on more positive notes, Taiwan has a few "blawgmakers," or lawmakers who blog, and blogs are so popular in the rest of the world that English actually is a second language in the blogosphere.

Here's more coverage about blogs from the past couple of weeks:

Government and politics-- "Network neutrality" has become a hot-button issue for bloggers in recent days. The term describes a legislative effort to keep dominant Internet providers from charging higher rates to some customers for high-speed Web access.

The Washington Post published a piece on how some bloggers are attacking former White House press secretary Mike McCurry. The Digital Divide Network also blogged about net neutrality.

-- Word that the National Security Agency has been collecting the telephone records of millions of Americans prompted a rush of commentary in the blogosphere -- enough of it that the mainstream media tooknotice.

-- An employee of the Virginia government was suspended for blogging. My entry on the topic includes links to a few MSM articles. AP also covered the news.

-- Liberal blogger John Aravosis of Americablog wondered aloud whether he and his fellow Democrats should stop criticizing officials of their own party until after the election. The discussion that followed prompted coverage in the Post. Newspapers also recently have covered how blogs are changing political discourse, boosting the campaigns of underdogs, and influencing the news-reporting process and evolution of political rumors.

-- The concern that campaigns might hire bloggers to do opposition research on candidates surfaced in Minnesota.

-- The battle between Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Ned Lamont for the Democratic Senate nomination in Connecticut is generating lots of buzz, with Lamont being the favorite among liberal bloggers and Lieberman being their whipping boy. Even The Wall Street Journal has taken note of the race. The political impact of bloggers more broadly already has been sufficient for MSM outlets to write about the revolutionary potential of blogs in Campaign 2006.

-- Connecticut lawmakers cleared a "shield" law that aims to protect the sources of bloggers as well as journalists.

-- Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos penned an op-ed in The Washington Post about the presidential ambitions of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He thinks she has "a Bill Clinton problem." Power Line thinks Moulitsas needed a better editor, and Christian Grantham said the logic in the article is "intellectually retarded."

-- Time magazine published a piece about the emergence of blog specialists on Capitol Hill. Matt Stoller of MyDD was flattered to have earned complaints from anonymous Democratic aides.

Media-- An advertising agency dropped its lawsuit against a Maine blogger after plenty of bad publicity over the suit. The case made a blogosphere hero of one Orlando, Fla., lawyer who helped defend the blogger.

-- "Blog rage" has been a hot topic in the MSM these days, what with all the vitriol from lefty bloggers directed at journalists like Jonathan Chait of The New Republic and Richard Cohen of the Post. Greg Sargent of The American Prospect tackled the issue, and Duncan Black of Eschaton responded.

-- Some bloggers think all the anger directed at them from the MSM is evidence that traditional media outlets feel threatened by the newcomers. But Jon Friedman of MarketWatch said they needn't feel threatened because the MSM still rule.

Maybe that's because so many people think you can'ttrustblogs. But the QandO Blog argued that blogs aren't supposed to be a trusted news source anyway.

-- Columnist Molly Ivins thinks it's a shame that bloggers are "breaking more toward opinion than journalism." She doesn't endorse the notion of credentialed journalists but does argue that bloggers should be able to write about a basic car accident before they get to cover a presidential campaign.

-- A prediction from an editor at a London newspaper: Most blogs "will disappear unnoticed, and frankly, unmissed by the world."

-- One journalist thinks his colleagues can learn from bloggers how to "hat tip" the work of other writers. And another says freelance writers should consider blogs as a way to showcase their writing.

-- Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post advised magazine editors not to put their content behind subscription walls. Huffington, meanwhile, was profiled for her work in quickly creating a successful group blog.

-- The suspension of an ABC News producer over an opinionated e-mail that was exposed at The Drudge Report has one commentator wondering whether bloggers are contributing to the chilling of free speech in the MSM.

-- Plagiarism appears to be as much a problem in the blogosphere as the MSM. Some of them are good at exposing plagiarism by others, as happened in the recent case involving Raytheon CEO William Swanson.

-- Bloggers were out in force to cover E3, a conference of the videogame industry.

-- "Work Matters" columnist Cheryl Bean addressed the rights of both employees and employers when it comes to blogging. Some folks don't think Intel should be paying an employee to blog. The blogger bravely put the question to his readers.

-- An executive at Six Apart, a top blog software firm, touted business blogs. And the newspaper in Bradenton, Fla., noted the emergence of business blogs there.

-- AOL plans to launch a blog/social network to compete with MySpace. MySpace, meanwhile, continues to get bad press because of people who abuse the service.

Culture-- Too many children reveal too much personal information on blogs -- and too many parents aren't aware of that behavior. But some people are trying to educatefamilies about the dangers in the blogosphere.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Carnival #6: Scandal In The Blogosphere

Scandal has been a persistent theme in mainstream media coverage of the blogosphere the past couple of weeks.

The controversies have led to the resignation of a blogger at a religious university, the loss of a journalist's assignments as a blogger and columnist at a major daily newspaper, and a lawsuit against a blogger who criticized a government office in Maine. Another ongoing blog lawsuit involving Apple Computer also generated plenty of attention.

The opposite happened in Los Angeles: A blogger who writes under the pseudonym Patterico chastised Los Angeles Times columnist/blogger Michael Hiltzik for using pseudonyms dishonestly -- by acting as "sock puppets" to praise and defend Hiltzik while pretending to be someone else. The end result: Hiltzik first lost his blog and later his column.

The Boston Globe had the story of the Maine blogger who was sued for allegedly making false statements about his state's tourism department and posting on his blog proposed advertisements for the department. The ad agency filed the suit. The blogger in question responded at the Maine Web Report, and blogger Ed Cone described the case as an example of "How Not To Fight A Web War."

The Palladium-Item in Indiana just added five blogs to its offerings, and the Houston Chronicle took another increasingly common route by hiring a conservative blogger who already has a loyal audience. Such steps are not limited to newspapers. BBC also decided to try its virtual hand at blogging. Even TV Guide is in the game.-- Whether or not newspapers can do blogs rights, New Voices certainly thinks blogs have a future. They featured prominently in the $17,000 community journalism grants announced by the institution, which is affiliated with the University of Maryland.

-- Folks in the mainstream media have a love-hate relationship with blogs. They tend to hate them but love to talk about them. Comments by Jill Abramson of The New York Times and columnist Ellen Goodman chattered about the blogosphere at recent events. NewsBusters wasn't too impressed with Abramson's speech.

-- Daniel Henninger of The Wall Street Journal thinks "the world of blogs may be filling up with people who for the previous 200 millennia of human existence kept their weird thoughts more or less to themselves."

-- Blogs tend to be a popular topic at journalism conferences. KnoxViews has a recap of a recent one at the University of Tennessee. The topic also arose at a recent European media forum.

-- You know blogs are hip when "blog editor" becomes a trendy job in the MSM. Some good editors apparently are needed, if two recent commentaries about the writingstyle of blogs is correct.

-- Blog writing also came under fire in an opinion package published by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Bloggers Hugh Hewitt and Jarvis also contributed essays to the package. Philly.com blogger Daniel Rubin added his voice to the debate after the series ran.

-- Howard Mortman continued his series on the blogs read by media stars. Jeff Zeleny, national political correspondent of The Chicago Tribune was the latest to share his list.

Military-- The first annual Milblog Conference was largely one big griping session, with slaps at the mainstream media, anti-war protestors and even the military because of its discussions about restrictions on blogs. But there were some positive discussions, too, as noted in a BBC piece on how blogs connect family members with their children at war.

A milblogger penned a commentary after the conference. And days before it, The Boston Globe reported on the blog debate over the tenure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

-- The military may want to restrict how soldiers use blogs, but the CIA recognizes them as an intelligence resource.

-- Few milbloggers think of liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos as a soldier -- or as a Republican. But he was both at one point in his life, as he explained himself at American Prospect Online.

Government and politics-- "Given that formal rules for bloggers don't really exist, and there isn't really any oversight over blogs like there is over traditional media, it seems to me that blogs are set to become a natural tool for manipulating an election." So wrote Rob Enderle and TechNews World, and then he went on to predict how it might happen.

-- Bloggers probably wouldn't admit any attempts to manipulate elections, but bloggers in Indiana certainly are confident that they have the power to shape state and local politics. Bloggers in Albuquerque, N.M., tried to demonstrate their power recently by holding a blog-in at a city council meeting.

-- Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is under fire from bloggers in his own party. They are making their preference for Ned Lamont well known and appear to be having an impact in the race.

-- Twins Aaron and Matt Margolis have won enough of a following as both national and local political bloggers in Boston to merit a profile in The Boston Globe. A less-flattering look at angry liberal bloggers by The Washington Post sparked plenty of critical commentary. The American Thinker has a roundup of links.

-- The Wall Street Journal hosted a discussion about whether blogs can make money. Jason Calacanis, who made millions of dollars by selling Weblogs Inc. to AOL, tracked the debate that ensued in the blogosphere.

Kingston's presence in the blogosphere and his passion for technology have generated plenty of positive press for him. He was one of my sources in my article about "The Rise of Blogs" for National Journal magazine in January, for instance, and as noted here in the last carnival, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Kingston's home state profiled him in March. (Another disclosure: I was interviewed for that story.)

He isn't the only lawmaker getting attention for outreach to the blogosphere, though. Also this week, The Hill covered efforts by House Democrats, particularly Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Capitol Report, GOP Bloggers and even the blog of the Republican National Committee highlighted the less-flattering aspects of the article. The liberal Americablog, by contrast, played up this quote from the story: "The liberal blogosphere is better developed than its conservative counterpart." And Matt Stoller of MyDD added that "it's good to see more recognition of the progressive blogosphere."

It's always amusing to see how the same story can spark such conflicting reactions.

That's just the start of the coverage about government and politics in the blogosphere over the past several days. Here's more for your reading pleasure:

Government and politics-- From the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah: "More and more politicians are bypassing the mainstream news media and turning to blogs, or Web logs, to post information and interact with constituents. Blogging even made it as a topic at this week's meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington."

-- The Federal Election Commission ruling that exempted blogs from campaign finance rules sparked coverage for days afterward. The most recent pieces appeared in The Financial Times and The Washington Post. The Tennessean of Nashville also penned an editorial praising the FEC for its vote. And at Beltway Blogroll this week, I examined what the rules might mean for the future of Internet politics.

-- How did a Wisconsin blogger topple a county Democratic chairman? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the answer: "He used unnamed sources. He posted lewd photos. He let his opinion be known about what he believed was the unethical and unprincipled behavior. ... He used tools that most mainstream media steer away from, but that bloggers are now using with gusto."

-- Apple Computer's fight against bloggers who play journalistic roles without journalistic credentials goes back to court this month. And if bloggers in Ireland aren't careful, they could find themselves in court for libel charges.

-- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democratic candidate for governor in the Empire State, caused a stir in the blogosphere when he said the economy in upstate New York "looks like Appalachia." Being from Appalachia -- I'm a proud redneck in a white collar from West Virginia -- I find the slam a little irksome, though I can't really argue with reality that the Appalachian economy is perpetually troubled.

Media-- Two conservative writers criticized some of their own colleagues for rushing to believe the worst about freelance journalist Jill Carroll while she was held captive in the Middle East.

Jeff Jacoby told bloggers they need to learn to "Hold That Opinion" sometimes. And in a piece at the CBS News blog Public Eye, Jim Geraghty, a blogger himself at National Review Online, lamented that "a significant portion of the blogosphere has ... gone sour."

Liberal writer Ellen Goodman said bloggers should apologize to Carroll. And the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska blasted bloggers for attacking her, concluding: "This is as good a place as any for the blogosphere to start paying its dues and examining, or developing, its conscience."

-- Byron Calame, the public editor at The New York Times, examined his paper's moves into the blogosphere. It's moves are pretty lame, actually, and so is Calame's column -- just what you'd expect from a green-eyeshade newsman of a bygone era.

-- The merging of old and new media is continuing, and bloggers are set to benefit from the three latest cases of convergence: The LexisNexis database firm struck a deal with Newstex to deliver blog content; Reuters inked a deal with the international blog network Global Voices Online; and the new BlogBurst syndication service already has some major newspaper clients for the expert blog commentary it hopes to offer.

-- Public television host David Brancaccio is a fan of blogs. Here are excerpts from an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"The idea of citizen voices expressing themselves through blogs is fabulous. There's people reading them and there's people with cool opinions. I read blogs quite a bit because they are other smart people with more time on their hands than me, [and they] have aggregated stories that I need to see. ... When we screw up, the bloggers are right there to hold our feet to the fire. But there has to be a basis of actual fact, fact does matter. It's not all just spin. But if blogs are built upon a foundation of facts that journalism can provide, then that's a great synergy."

International-- The government of Singapore is being condemned for gagging bloggers and other online activists in the run-up to the Asian nation's election. Computerworld wonders whether the censorship will work.

-- Bloggers are doing their part to spread a conspiracy theory about Iran's plan to topple the United States.

-- Video blogs could be threatened by pending television legislation in the European Union.

-- A pro-democratic blogger from Nepal was scheduled to speak at the University of California at Los Angeles about his country's oppression of democratic activists.

-- Some bloggers/wannabe sailors have made cussing part of their shtick. It's little wonder, then, that when The Daily News in Longview, Wash., asked on its blog whether there is too much foul language these days, bloggers had plenty to say on the topic.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Carnival #4: All About Plagiarism

Plagiarism has been a dominant topic in and about both the blogosphere and the MSM the past couple of weeks. First, bloggers exposed one of their own as a serial plagiarist in works that he wrote before he became a blogger. Then bloggers turned the tables on the MSM, providing evidence of plagiarism by the wire service Associated Press.

Ben Domenech of RedState was the blogger busted for lifting the work of others. He's a conservative, and liberal bloggers upset that The Washington Post had contracted with Domenech to write a new blog called Red America went looking for any dirt they could find on him. They found abundant evidence of his plagiarism. At Beltway Blogroll, which I write for NationalJournal.com, I recapped the coverage of the Domenech debacle in both the blogosphere and traditional media.

Jim Brady of washingtonpost.com caught a lot of grief for his role in hiring Domenech, but Slate media critic Jack Shafer later defended Brady.

Soon after that uproar faded, Larisa Alexandrovna picked a fight with AP for not properly crediting work she had done in her role as the managing editor of Raw Story. It's not plagiarism of the sort that Domenech reluctantly confessed, but at the least AP ended up looking rather foolish -- first for defending its actions by stating that AP does not credit blogs and then for flip-flopping on that elitist stance.

Plagiarism is a big deal no matter where you blog. But libel is probably less of a concern in America than it is in places like the United Kingdom. It's definitely an issue there, as evidenced by a "bloggers beware" article in the Manchester Evening News. And in Ireland, a blog faces closure after making allegedly libelous statements about businesses, people, artists and politicians. It must be tough for bloggers to have a voice in Ireland.

Both a column at TechWeb News and an editorial in a Texas newspaper warned that the decision has opened the door to further blog regulation. And the Los Angeles Times added that the low barrier to entry into the blogosphere and the penchant of bloggers to uncover hidden agendas make for "a far more effective regulatory force than the FEC could ever hope to apply."

-- Bloggers are being portrayed as both heroes and villains in the story surrounding the release of freelance journalist Jill Carroll by captors in Iraq.

-- A coalition of Democratic bloggers in Texas took a fellow Democrat to task for his recent behavior in a congressional race. Roger Owen, the Democratic nominee in the 1st District, called another Democrat "a piece of dirt."

-- Are blogs part of or entirely "the liberal base of the Democratic Party"? The Washington Posttackled that question as the result of criticism from one of the top liberal blogs. Me thinks John Aravosis of Americablog protesteth too much. But this analysis seems to be on the mark: "Blogs can be anything from vital, valid journalism to hysterical ranting to dull and even offensive adolescent musings."

-- A columnist in Ohio offered these predictions after speaking at a blog forum: "It's only a matter of time before every community has a blog that is influencing public opinion, or at least is part of the mainstream conversation. It's only a matter of time before every newspaper has some sort of blog-like companion to its print editions."

-- What does columnist Molly Ivins think of bloggers? "Bloggers are not news-gatherers, but opinion-mongers. I have long argued that no one should be allowed to write opinion without spending years as a reporter -- nothing like interviewing all four eyewitnesses to an automobile accident and then trying to write an accurate account of what happened." And here's more MSM commentary on "the painful truth about bloggers."

-- A San Francisco Chronicle columnist longs for the day when bloggers, the MSM and other enemies in the digital revolution can all get along. Two signs that the day is coming: the launch of BlogBurst, a network for syndicating blog content in newspapers, and Time magazine's foray into the blogosphere also hints at that possibility. But one newspaperman thinks such moves may spell the end of "the blog as a disruptive and rebellious medium."

-- The path to blogger fame and fortune ironically appears to be recognition in the mainstream media that so many bloggers despise. And in marking the 10th anniversary of his paper's move online, the computer columnist for The Chicago Tribune said, "The lifeblood of content for the blogosphere comes from the very news organizations that so many bloggers think they are making obsolete."

Culture-- Newspapers in Michigan and Wisconsin independently noted the benefits of college blogs, including their ability to offer both advice and insider views of the college scene. The best education bloggers say their medium of choice is having an impact on teaching and learning.

-- A dean of students and English teacher in Pennsylvania is so smitten with blogs and the lessons they can teach that he is requiring students to write their own and link to his in order to create a "virtual classroom.

-- The contrary view: School administrators in Fort Wayne, Ind., are so disturbed by what they have seen on some blogs that they tried to block student access to them. Some information on blogs and social-networking sites like MySpace are even being used to aid criminal probes.

-- Blogging is the medium of the young, but some older folks like the medium, too.

Business-- "The risks of blogging can discourage companies from even trying -- or can cause them to post Web sites that blog readers see as lame attempts to blog." That's one of several insights from a recent MSNBC piece about blogging in the business world. The article suggests that smart companies engage the blogosphere, and I concur. The pharmaceutical industry appears to be getting the message.

-- Microsoft employees recently aired their gripes about the company anonymously at Mini-Microsoft, a forum whose mission is to "slim down Microsoft into a lean, mean, efficient, customer-pleasing, profit-making machine."

Miscellaneous-- Most bloggers are writing volunteers, so it makes sense that there is a budding blog community in the Volunteer State (that's Tennessee for those of you who are challenged in the state nicknames department).

-- The problem with blogs: bad grammar. They are more "brain dump" than writing forum.

-- Bloggers Blends: a new coffee brand just for bleary-eyed bloggers. Maybe they'll serve it as part of the Blogonomics conference/cruise.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Carnival #3: The Fight For Online Political Speech

Bloggers were the focus of attention in pockets of official Washington this week, as both the House and the Federal Election Commission pondered changes to campaign finance rules on behalf of bloggers. Neither body ultimately took action, but the press covered the developments as they unfolded.

News.com set the stage with a piece last week on a House committee's approval of legislation designed to largely exempt blogs from campaign finance rules. The House was expected to consider the legislation today but delayed action as concerns about the legislation mounted. Two major newspapers, The New York Times and the Philadelphia Daily News, voiced some concerns in editorials. The Christian Science Monitor and UPI also covered the story.

The Wal-Mart story was hot last week, after publication of a New York Times story that raised questions about bloggers parroting information straight from Wal-Mart's public relations firm. An executive with that PR firm discussed the issue in an online chat at washingtonpost.com, and Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz also covered the story.

Blogging generated a bit of controversy in China recently, too. Word spread that the government there had closed a couple of top blogs, and mainstream media outlets like Reuters were all over the story. The next day, however, Reuters reported that the blogs had reappeared. Apparently that's because the whole story was a hoax -- a fact that China Daily happily reported. Curiously, some Chinese officials started blogging at about the same time.

Government and politics-- White House adviser Karl Rove has had some praiseworthy things to say about blogs in the past, but he apparently has seen the dark side of the blogosphere, too. The Chicago Sun-Times recently noted this not-so-flattering quote from Rove: "There is so much ugliness and viciousness and fundamental untruths that the blogosphere transmits. It also is a vehicle for ugly rumors, for scurrilous personal attacks, an avenue for the creation of urban legends, which are deeply corrosive of the political system and of people's faith in it."

-- A few newspapers have taken a recent interest in the increasing political impact of blogs. The newspaper in Asheville, N.C., ran a piece on blogs and free speech, and the Washington bureau of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explored the role of blogs in the nation's capital. The longtime statehouse reporter of the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, meanwhile, tried his hand (or mouth) at audio blogging this year's legislative session. And a New Jersey paper editorialized against the move by one lawmaker there to ban anonymous speech at blogs.

Media-- "A lame excuse? A case of recovered memory? Or something worse?" Those are the questions Slate columnist Jack Shafer asked in closing the column where he ridiculed former New York Times reporter Judy Miller for arguing that blogs killed her career. Blogger Arianna Huffington offered an equally harsh criticism of Miller's anti-blog whine.

Miscellaneous-- Last week's Carnival of Blog coverage noted some of the controversy surrounding MySpace, a blogging service popular with young people. One concerned parent tackled that subject in a newspaper column about the "MySpace monster" last week, while a newspaper in Tennessee penned an article on what parents can do to help clean MySpace.

-- Blog-based books, or "blooks," now have their own award, the Blooker Prize. "An Army of Davids" isn't eligible for the prize, but that blog-authored book continues to generate interest. Both the New York Post and TCSDaily reviewed it recently.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Carnival #2: Youth + Blogs = Trouble

One of the best attributes of the blogosphere is its ability to empower everyone to say what they think or post whatever they please. But when immature people seize that power, trouble is sure to ensue. Some of the recent news coverage about blogs provides the evidence.

In Denver late last month, for instance, police arrested a 16-year-old boy for posting to the MySpace blog network photographs of himself holding handguns. He posted the photos the same day he was suspended from a high school in the same district as Columbine High School, which was the scene of an infamous shooting in 1999. In Michigan, 15 to 20 teenagers faced school disciplinary action after they posted photos of themselves at drinking parties.

Another student is facing child pornography charges for posting pictures of two underage people have sex. In Greenwich, Conn., five female students were arrested for allegedly posting to the Xanga blog network a threat aimed at deterring another student from testifying in a drug bust against one of their friends. Two other MySpace-related incidents also have been reported recently, one involving graphic threats against a student and the other about the arrest of two men suspected of sexual contact with minors arranged through the social-networking site.

Such espisodes, especially the ones that might endanger children's lives, are occurring often enough that public officials are taking notice. A school in Washington state recently held a forum on protecting children online, including by monitoring their blog activities. Some schools also have blocked access to blog communities like MySpace and Xanga on school computers. Universities, corporations and others also are getting into the blog-monitoring practice.

The jump from high school into college does not necessarily make one wiser when it comes to thinking twice before blogging, either. A university blogger in China, which is known for its repression of Internet freedom, landed in trouble for criticizing a journalism professor. Plus in Canada, allegations of "cyber libel" are becoming more common as blogs become more popular.

As has been the case with the Internet as a whole, the blogosphere can be used for good or evil. The evil tends to get more attention in the mainstream media, but sometimes we journalists also take note of the good news.

In Pennsylvania, for example, a psychology professor is requiring her students to monitor blogs as a better way to understand adolescent behavior in the information age. The Indianapolis Star has a positive story about blogs on campus. And The Harvard Crimson has an article on a new blog networking effort aimed at sharing ideas, communicating events and increasing campus-wide discussion.

Flashback to Carnival #1

My first roundup at the Carnival of Blog Coverage recapped the recent buzz about declining readership in the blogosphere. A handful of blog fans in the mainstream media dismissed that notion in follow-up articles.

Government and politics-- U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., has a public-relations team that is funneling information to blogs focused on military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq and in turn directing Internet traffic back toward the military's CENTCOM Web site. CENTCOM also is podcasting now.

-- A blogger used the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to orders issued by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Book reviewsTwo books by bloggers are about to be released, and both they and their authors are getting plenty of press. The first tome is Army of Davids, by InstapunditGlenn Reynolds; the second is Crashing the Gate, by Jerome Armstrong of MyDD and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos.

International-- The Chinese government may not be fond of its people blogging, but officials have come to realize the power of the blog. AP reports that the government has created lawmaker blogs in an attempt to boost public interest in the figurehead parliament and companion advisory board.

-- The government of Pakistan is blocking access to blogs that have invited people to post images of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.Business-- If you're looking for a new job, the best place to look might be the employee blogs in your favorite companies. "[B]loggers do a lot of chitchatting about work-related issues that can be a gold mine of information for job hunters," the Houston Chronicle reports. BusinessWeek Online also has "The Inside Story on Company Blogs."